“Excellent, President Buchen! Are we leaving this place right away? ” Inside the room, the force field dissipating from the doorframe meant that the crowd packed the corridor to overflowing.

“Just to be safe, we still need to go to the third floor and successfully bid on at least one room. “

The crowd was boisterous now, their previous worries behind them, everyone was open-minded about bidding on the third floor.

Come to think of it… Yang Zicang suddenly recalled that Bai Yuan had seemed to head up to the third floor.

He smoothed out his slightly wrinkled collar and headed for the nearby staircase.

Just as he stepped onto the third floor, before he could even catch his breath of excitement, he heard voices at the other end of the corridor.

“I swear, I didn’t ask you to sell off all our Glory lights! “

The pale-faced but furious Lynx King was on the verge of drawing his sword.

“Of course you didn’t! ” Another Travelers’ Guild guard, whose face still bore marks of unhealed swelling, pointed at Bai Yuan and retorted, “He forced me to! You all threatened me! “

“Bullshit! “

The other guy, dressed head-to-toe in a white suit, jumped up and shot back, “It was you lot who shoved the list into my hands first! “

“You’re the one talking bullshit—why are you even here? “

The Lynx King barked at Bai Yuan.

“And you? Why are you standing here with the Travelers’ Guild? “

Amidst the argument, Yang Zicang froze, standing on the last step of the stairs like a farmer who had wandered into a battlefield. He couldn’t make sense of it.

The Guild guards and a few of the Lynx King’s men on both sides of the hallway noticed something was off, turning their heads or looking up in his direction.

Bai Yuan beamed, “Brother Yang, great, you’re here! Everything went smoothly? Just look at these bastards. “

“Forget about whether it went smoothly or not—what’s all this…? “

The Lynx King pointed at Bai Yuan furiously, “Brother Buchen, this friend of yours has snatched away all our Glory bill payments! “

“What do you mean, ‘snatched’? Hey, look at them! ” Bai Yuan retorted impatiently, exasperated and breathless.

“Silence! ” Yang Zicang swept his gaze over the closed doors on the third floor, then looked back at the guards of the Travelers’ Guild, and said coldly, “Why are you here? “

“Ah… us, well… ” The guards looked pleadingly at the Lynx King and Bai Yuan.

“Not talking, are you? ” Sensing something amiss, an orange phantom flame erupted from Yang Zicang. In an instant, a chilling murderous intent filled the corridor, as if a bleak autumn wind had swept through.

The Lynx King tensed up, eyeing Bai Yuan who wore a somewhat smug expression just two steps away.

“It was me! ” A voice suddenly rang out from among the Travelers’ Guild guards.

Kim Tae-cheol raised his hand. “I called them all here, Mr. Bu Chen. Please let us pledge our allegiance to you! “

“What?! ” The Lynx King stared in shock at these guards, who were equally stunned themselves.

Kim Tae-cheol ran over quickly. “We were neighbors back on Earth! Of course, in this hellish world, we brothers should stick together, right? “

Bai Yuan turned his head in a daze, looking at the man’s retreating figure.

The phantom flame on Yang Zicang did not recede, and his eyes held a hint of suspicion and scrutiny, but the murderous aura had vanished without a trace.

“I swear we’re telling the truth! ” Kim Tae-cheol raised his arm, pointing behind him at Bai Yuan. “The five of us have written down our story on the room fee contract and given it to Mr. Bai Zilong for him to pass on to you, haven’t we? “

“Wha—! ” Bai Yuan subconsciously started to speak, then promptly shut his mouth.

The Lynx King let out a long sigh.

The four Travelers’ Guild guards standing on either side of the corridor snapped out of their daze, their expressions shifting as they chuckled, “Ah… yes, yes, it was all Manager Jin’s idea. “

“Really? ” Yang Zicang’s eyebrows twitched up and down a couple of times.

Kim Tae-cheol straightened his skewed clothes in front of Yang Zicang, dusted off the dirt caked on him from a night of exhaustion, and stood nearby, speaking with an air of neither servility nor arrogance.

“Of course it’s the absolute truth. Mr. Lynx and Mr. Bai can vouch for us. “

Bai Yuan, clutching the nine Radiance Glow travel fee receipts that hadn’t even warmed in his hands yet, nodded at Kim Tae-cheol, his jaw nearly unhinged.

After glancing at the two men with their inscrutable expressions in the distance, Yang Zicang’s thoughts turned to the inn itself. To be on the safe side, he confirmed:

“Is the ability of your guild to take over events solely derived from this inn? “

“That’s right. And the reason I suggested everyone pledge loyalty to Mr. Bucheng is also due to advice from our guild’s greatest supporter. “

Amidst the corridor’s atmosphere, where everyone was bewildered yet dared not make a fuss, the man spoke urgently:

“This great lady of ours has always supported the guild’s work, but unfortunately, the leadership of the Travelers’ Guild has limited ability. After all this time, they still haven’t been able to fully control the inn. Though, admittedly, I don’t know what exactly is still lacking. “

With that, Kim Tae-cheol let out a sigh.

“Of course it’s a difference in radiance, ” Yang Zicang thought. “If your guild has been hiding in the Fog Sea all along, no wonder you’ve never found the opportunity to create a ‘Heroic Radiance Flare.’ “

But who exactly is this so-called lady?

Kim Tae-cheol, with a grin, handed a bracelet-like amulet he was holding to the puzzled Yang Zicang.

“Chairman Buchen, our hotel’s largest investor—the distributor Frujan Valkyrie—wants me to tell you she aims to be your fifth-tier Moon Realm distributor. “

As he finished speaking, a thought transmission resounded.

｛Distributor May Valkyrie wishes to invest 100 strands of Five-Colored Moon Essence with me.｝

｛I have received 100 strands of Five-Colored Moon Essence.｝

Kim Tae-cheol thrust the charm bracelet into Yang Zicang’s hands.

“Chairman, Lady Frujan had me give this to you, expending her stored Moon Essence as the cost. “

• ｛The charm gem indicates that May Valkyrie wishes to reserve my ‘Heroic Radiance Flare: Fire Travel Inn.’｝

……

Duran paced back and forth on the platform carved from a large reef outside the lighthouse. A squad of reef guards in cotton uniforms marched past him as sea winds whipped the blue-and-black banner emblazoned with a crest of a “sea bird clutching a flower ” into continuous waves of fabric.

“Yang Buchen… he’s the man who spawned Radiance Flare. “

To think that such a miracle was born—even if it remains only in an incubating state now—once it succeeds, it means an endless stream of “Heroic Radiance Flares ” could be on the horizon.

For once they fully mastered the Fee Travel Hotel, it would attract many powerful, ambitious people to stay—after all, it was a miraculous place that would record another copy of any shard of radiance born there.

As a distributor, how could he not know the legends surrounding it? It was just that he had previously never had the ability to touch incidents of this level—after all, he was only a distributor of the second tier of the lunar realm.

A gray dove plummeted from the clouds with a whoosh. After a few flaps of its wings, it landed on the shoulder of Dian, who was rubbing his hands together.

“Coo-coo coo~ “

Hanging around its neck was an electronic speaker the size of a thumb, like an ultra-shrunken old-fashioned radio.

Dian cast a glance left and right, then took a couple of steps to a rocky slope closer to the crashing waves.

— “Mr. Dian, we hear your order volume exploded last night. Is there anything we can help share the load? “

“Just came for this, huh? Since you’ve already left, you don’t need to pay attention to what’s going on here. “

— “We heard it was a rare radiance incident, wasn’t it? “

“Who’s spreading those rumors? If it were a rare event, would it have kept me busy for half the night? “

Last night, dozens of people had witnessed firsthand the birth of the “Radianse ” event. As discussions heated up, coupled with the Travelers’ Guild incident, nearly everyone present by the late night had gained a piece of “Glory Light ” born from that shard of radiance.

Therefore, Yang Zicang hadn’t managed to buy any “Radiance” or “Flash” from him, yet by the wee hours of the night, Dio had received over a dozen “Radiance” pieces—most from these newcomers who’d only learned about the existence of distributors through the commotion. They’d voluntarily come upstairs, pleading to sell, netting Dio a hefty profit. This was, after all, a witness to the birth of a Flash event—they actually sold it to him at the original price!

The little red light on the communicator flickered as the voice on the other end continued relentlessly:

— “But I heard a ‘Flash’ was born on your side. Is it really true?“

Dio, growing impatient, glanced at the cooing transmitter on his shoulder, but as a distributor, he couldn’t lie to other distributors.

“Oh, there’s that kind of thing, sure, but it was just an accident.“

— “And that’s called ordinary?!“

The voice from the communicator shot up an octave.

— “Sir, dear Sir Dio! I beg you, be as honest as a bear—did you sign a long-term contract with that Spark Envoker who has the Flash? Oh no, wait—is he there with you? I want to talk to him myself.“

Dio jerked in surprise. “No! That fellow’s extremely cautious. He… well, he’s already left anyway and hasn’t sold me a single experience.“

Static crackled over the communicator as the other side seemed to want to say more, but Dio had already started shooing away his homing pigeon.

“Old pal, you’d better wind up and get going. I’m busy here, and I don’t have that much free time to chit-chat across epochs or travel the land.“

— “Busy with what? Busy collecting Flashes, I suppose?“

“I said I’m busy, I’m busy, so why ask me what I’m busy with! “

Flap, flap, flap! The gray dove with a ring of black-spotted feathers around its neck was driven into a flurry by Di’an, and finally, clutching the tiny, jingling communicator, it flew up into the high sky, dissolving into a fist-sized puff of gray air.

“Damn it. Usually you strut around looking down on everyone, and the moment you see this continent is doomed, you’re the first to bail. Now you hear about a ‘Shimmer’ and come hurrying back? Hmph. “

Di’an patted the dust off his sleeves and shoulders when he suddenly heard a commotion coming from across the otherwise fairly quiet sea.

The iron-hulled wooden boat, docked all night in front of the reef, suddenly took on water for nearly two finger-width lengths.